A Florida man who bought a yacht, a private jet and a fleet of luxury cars including more than two dozens Ferrari's thanks to a $22 million tax fraud scheme has been sentenced to prison.
Matthew Brown, of Palm Beach Gardens, was sentenced to 50 months in prison last week in connection with a years-long scheme to defraud the U.S. out of millions in taxes, the Department of Justice said.
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WATCH HEREBrown owned and operated multiple businesses in Palm Beach, St. Lucie and Martin counties including a payroll services company known as Elite Payroll.
The company was hired to collect and pay Social Security, Medicare and federal income taxes for the employees of small businesses.
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But between 2014 and 2022, Brown didn't pay some $22 million in taxes that were withheld from employees' wages, pocketing the money for himself, authorities said.
Under the scheme, Brown charged his clients the full amount of their tax liabilities, then filed false employment tax returns with the IRS that substantially underreported their liabilities, and pocketed the difference, authorities said.
In one instance, a client owed approximately $219,000 in taxes, which Elite Payroll collected from the client but filed a false tax return with the IRS claiming that the client only owed approximately $32,000, which Elite paid.
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Brown then kept the remaining approximately $190,000, authorities said.
The massive scheme allowed Brown to buy commercial and residential real estate, including his multimillion-dollar home, a Valhalla 55 Sport Yacht, a Falcon 50 Aircraft, and a large collection of cars including Porsches, Rolls Royces, and 27 Ferraris.
In addition to the prison sentence, Brown will serve two years of supervised release and must pay $22,401,585 in restitution and a $200,000 fine to the United States.
